October 5, 2005—Yesterday afternoon, a crew filming a documentary about 2 miles west of the Coronado National Memorial was fired upon by what was described as members of the Mexican Army.

The crew, from CDW Films in Corona Del Mar, California, was in the area filming footage for a documentary on the Minutemen who are monitoring the U.S./Mexico border as they did in April of this year.

The crew had gone out to explore areas along the border with two guides unrelated to the Minuteman activities. The driver of a 4 X 4 pickup truck requested his name not be associated with any reports because of fears of retaliation from the gunmen. However, he offered a full recount of the situation.

The driver said he and his brother had been contacted to escort the two-man film crew, as they were familiar with the area. They were driving along primitive roads and washes hoping to spot signs of illegal alien activity, and to film a cattle guard through the border fence where illegals have been known to cross into the United States. They had spotted many signs, including footprints leading north along a well-worn path.

The driver had spotted a cloud of dust from a fast moving vehicle on the near horizon to the east, and then sighted what appeared to be a military Humvee with a mounted weapon, possibly a 50 caliber gun. About 20 seconds later, the group saw someone running towards them dressed in desert camouflage clothing, holding a rifle across his chest. Two others then appeared dressed the same way, and also brandishing weapons. The trio entered a V-formation as they dropped to one knee and sighted in their weapons. As the sun was in the soldier’s eyes, they seemed to have problems doing so, causing enough of a delay for the group to flee.

The film crew and brother of the driver jumped into the bed of the pickup truck while the driver dove into the cab and started the engine. As the truck backed out of the area, shots rang out from the soldiers. The driver’s brother screamed out, “They’re shooting at us! They’re trying to kill us!”

The truck backed over a hill, spun around and fled at speeds up to 55 miles per hour on the primitive, rutted roads. They noticed the Humvee was in pursuit. After about a mile or so, the truck stopped to allow the three in the exposed bed of the truck to jump into the cab, but they could hear the distinct, “Pop, pop, pop,” of rifle fire from behind. The driver and his brother opened cover fire for self defense with rifles of their own. The group said the soldiers, identified as Mexican Army, were still coming, and they could see the muzzle flash of the weapons being fired at them.

The group fled along a forest road until they came to an undisclosed area the driver knew of where they could hide safely until after dark, when they set out again looking for assistance from law enforcement.

About halfway down the mountain road, they came upon a National Park Ranger who signaled them to stop. By this time they had cleared their weapons and they presented them to the Park Ranger. The ranger took them to the local headquarters and called the Border Patrol. In a few minutes, six Border Patrol vehicles had pulled up. The Border Patrol took the weapons and had the group follow them to their own headquarters to make statements and to have the weapons checked.
After clearing the group, the Border patrol had thanked the group four different times for their cooperation and released them with their weapons.

Jose Garza from the Border patrol Public Information Office confirmed that such an incident did, in fact, take place, but the situation was still under investigation and would offer no further statement.

A woman identifying herself as Nancy at the Coronado National Memorial said they were only taking names and would return calls tomorrow with an official statement.

Carmen Mercer, Vice President of Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC), stated that this incident was, in no way, connected with the current operations of MCDC. The brothers were escorting the film crew as guides, not as volunteers for MCDC. The film crew could not be reached for comment.